◈ Chapter 77:

“We don't have to be safe you know.”

Rain narrowed his eyes at the Goblin, “What are you suggesting?”

She grinned almost predatorily. “This is a real chance to kill him, to kill the big bad leveler. To get what you want Rain.”

Lyra yelped as she was thrust forward on the table, the entire desk moving as Rain shifted in agitation.

“I- I don't know what you mean Opal, he’s inside the dungeon and we’re out here! It’s better that way! He’s too s-strong!”

“A dungeon with a secret exit that only we know of. Oh and Rain here just destroyed this leveler council thing fighting against him all together, some of their best. I think he can take this Ranker as long as he is alone, especially with my plan for a trap.”

Rain’s eyes glittered with desire. Opal was right, there was a unique opportunity of timing here. His bloodlust for Bane, the Ranker, was roaring in his ears.

He reached for the spilt inkpot and the quill and dragged them toward the book with his claws, then he lowered his head to be close to Lyra’s, his breath tugging at her hair.

“Write in the book, copy the handwriting of the councillor.”

Lyra shivered. She felt very small beneath him.

Hesitantly she picked up the quill. It was still wet with ink.

“Wh-what do I say? He’s asking about the attack!”

Rain paused, his thoughts were still too much of a poisoned mess to quite articulate what he wanted.

“Duh,” said Opal, rolling her eyes. “Baldy already gave you the answer.”

“He did?”

“Yes, the Orc clan. Tell the Ranker that his mansion is under attack from the Orc clan and that his girls are dying or dead and they are looting his stuff. That’ll make him come running.”

Lyra blinked and then turned to the page. She carefully checked over the councillor’s remarkably sloppy handwriting then lowered the quill and hesitantly began to write.

After a minute she finished, her breath held, waiting for a reply.

They waited, tense, quiet, and then fresh ink appeared out of nowhere on the paper, creating letters, tersely worded.

“He wants to know how we’ll deal with it.”

“Tell him we can’t, we need help from him.”

Lyra bit her lip and began writing once more.

“How will this ensure he comes alone?” gravelled Rain, his gaze locked onto the dancing quill in Lyra’s hand.

“Hmm, that's the next part.”

The reply came.

“H-he seems angry, he demands we deal with it ourselves as he cannot leave the dungeon because of the Inquisitor.”

“Tell him that it’s worse than just Orcs, the succubus is involved and there are some troublesome people about to make moves. The priestess has turned against him, she was never happy with what he was doing…” She played with a lock of hair, “Even I could tell that.” She continued: “Tell him he should come with no one as he doesn't know who else has come under the priestess’s influence or who is involved.”

Lyra finished writing, the reply didn't take long and it was angrier still.

Opal smiled and tapped her chin with her finger. “And now you give him the rope to hang himself with.”

“The secret exit.”

“Exactly.”

“Uh, how do I direct him to that?”

“Draw- nevermind, just pass me the book.”

Lyra seemed quite grateful to be handing the book over to the Goblin girl and eagerly shoved it along the desk where Opal hopped her chair over and reached out for it, settling it in front of her. She grabbed up the quill and began furiously scribbling, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in concentration. Rain watched carefully as a crude map of the dungeon slowly appeared.

As Opal was scribbling Red was struggling with a metal door behind Rain. He had his stolen key in claw and was twisting it in a keyhole, clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, clockwise once more, just as he had observed the councillor do it. There was a clicking sound and to the Kobold’s delight the door swung open. His eyes lit up at what was inside. Gold, lots and lots of gold, more gold than he had possessed before even as it included both his own and the councillor’s. The hoard Swelled.

Above the pile of gold was a robe, one that looked suspiciously like the cultist’s robes, except this one was fringed in red and black, clearly something someone important would wear. Red did not care even in the slightest, he was too busy scooping armfuls of wonderful gold into the Dimensional bag.

Opal finished her map with a flourish and pushed the book back over to Rain and Lyra.

The reply didn't take long.

“He wants to know what the hell this is.”

“It’s a map.”

“I, ah, think he knows that, I think he means the secret exit.”

“Tell him it’s a recent discovery, something to do with the succubus, keep that part cryptic, but be clear on how to find the switch that opens the door amongst the fungi,” said Rain.

Lyra wrote quickly.

“He’s coming, he’s really coming, oh gods what have I done!”

“It’ll be fine sheepy, especially with my trap plan.”

“What is this plan? what do we need to make it happen?”

Opal nodded. “Okay first of all we need a town cave, preferably one close to the surface.”

Lyra and Rain stared at her.

“... A what now?”

“You know, a town cave, caves in a town, town caves,” she gestured with her hand like it was obvious.

“Oh my gods there are no caves in a town Opal! That’s dungeon thinking!”

Opal looked at her non-plussed.

“Why wouldn't there be?”

“Because it’s a town! Town’s don't have caves! Oh no no no, we’re all gonna die!”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine, I know this town,” said Rain. “There are no caves but there are basements, some quite large and sprawling, that should be near enough for any plan.”

“Okay, come pick me up and show me,” she lifted her arms and made grabbing motions for Rain.

Rain rolled his eyes and at last moved from the desk. Lyra nearly fell over. Her bum almost felt sore from Rain’s carelessness! Being bent over a desk, his vast mass pressing against her, shredding her clothing with his intimidating claws, then holding his prey down, slooowly squeezing his massive throbbing maleness into her-

She coughed and spluttered into her fist, her cheeks graduating from pink to strawberry red.

As she struggled to deal with her increasingly dangerous intrusive thoughts Rain grabbed up the goblin girl, pausing as he found her floppy legs coated in a layer of white stuff. Displeased with the state of her he held her wrists in one paw and ripped the remainder of her skirt from her hips then wiped her down as she squirmed and blushed, unable to do anything as he cleaned her, roughly thrusting the rag up between her thighs.

“This will have to do before we can find a bath.”

She glared daggers at him, but couldn't stop little noises escaping from her lips as he worked.

Rain gathered her fully into his arms then turned and was about to head toward the door when he caught sight of Red opening a strange little bag on the floor and then… jumping inside of it.

Rain nearly fell over in surprise, his feet collided with a chair and the chair was crushed to splinters. He stared round eyed, wondering what the hell had just happened. The Kobold had just vanished into thin air!

“...What?”

“Oh haha, you uh, didn't actually know about this I guess…” said Lyra scratching her cheek. She leant down and scooped up the bag tossing Vaush inside in the same motion. The skull did not look particularly pleased about this treatment. “It’s a Dimensional Bag, it can hold more than it looks like on the outside, lots more!”

“Something of the Ranker’s?” said Rain, taking a guess. This discovery was making other vaguely recalled things make a lot more sense.

“Mmhmm! And it’s filled with all his gold too!”

Rain couldn't complain about that, in fact he was pleased, pleased he was taking once again from the Ranker. This was just a taster to his real vengeance of course and he found he was eager for more, much more, and soon he would have it. He grabbed the head councillor’s body in passing and dragged him behind him as he walked.

Rain squeezed through the doorway back out into the hallway. As he stepped down it Lyra let out a yelp behind him. He turned to find her sitting on her rump on the ground, a pool of white stuff around her. She blinked and moved her hooves, they slid around in the stuff, slippery beneath her. She brought up her hand to her face in confusion, parting her fingers dozens of strings of the stuff stretched between her fingers.

“What is this stuff?”

“Oh it’s paint,” said Opal. “Just some paint that someone dropped. Don’t worry about it.”

Lyra brought it closer to her face, sniffing, her nostrils flaring, drawing in a long breath. “Why does it smell so… It seems strangely familiar.”

Opal snorted out a laugh before hurriedly choking it off.

Lyra’s eyes snapped up and she stared at the suspicious Goblin. Then her gaze slid down her body.

“...Why are you half naked?”

“One of the levelers attacked my shorts, they couldn't be saved. Tragic really.”

“We need to be going,” said Rain, “He is coming, and I want to be prepared.”

Lyra with difficulty managed to get her hooves under her, dozens of strings of the substance connected her rear to the ground as she rose before snapping one by one. She got to her feet and nearly fell over once more as her hooves slipped around underneath her. Rain ran out of patience and walked on ahead, ignoring the mad dance of the sheep girl trying to keep her balance.

“H-hey! Wait up!”

Rain continued to ignore her pleas and they stepped back out into the main hall where he dropped the head councillor. Something had changed in the hall and it took a moment for Rain to realise what that was. The long table that had been overturned now had a small burned section in the middle. Puzzled he stepped towards it. The burn went through the table and out the other side, a hole straight through. More concerning was the insane amounts of blood, it was inches thick, a small lake of the stuff that wound its way amongst the mountains and valleys that was the pulverised foodstuffs.

His gaze narrowed as he found a number of empty glass bottles in the pool of blood, nearly a dozen of them. He instantly recognised them of course, they were the same glass bottle, the same as the healing potion that the Dwarf had tried to use in the ruined city of the dungeon, the small scrap of which had saved him.

“Zack lives,” he murmured, although he somehow doubted the Elf was doing particularly well, he had eaten his entire arm and his shoulder after all, potion or not he was not growing that back.

Lyra looked up at him as she arrived nearby, her hooves still occasionally slipping, a worried look on her face.

“He does? Ugh! He’s awful! He was still trying to seduce me even as they interrogated us!”

“I honestly didn't think it was possible to survive having a fifth of your chest bitten off and then having a banquet table fall on you. If he really did survive he’ll have fled like the others. Once he realised the succubus was actually real his motivations shifted to an overwhelming fear of her.”

Opal had been staring at the bottles, her brow furrowed. “Hey, those are healing potions right? Does that mean there's a place you can get those in this town?”

Rain tilted his head, “Yes, there’s an alchemist's shop in the high leveler’s quarter I believe.”

“Oh we’re definitely making a stop there.”

As Opal mused on her growing plans Rain gently placed her on the overturned table. Then he ate the head councillor and the Priestess, and then Haldir and Lixiss.

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